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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25560370">Robby Corman  Notices Things</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_Blackhawk/pseuds/Lady_Blackhawk'>Lady_Blackhawk</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>13 Reasons Why (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Chalex Week 2020, M/M, outside perspective</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 12:09:30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,086</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25560370</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_Blackhawk/pseuds/Lady_Blackhawk</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Robby Corman isn't just the shy kid. He's got his own issues,  and he's still figuring himself out, but maybe he can help a friend figure some things out too.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Charlie St. George/Alex Standall</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>44</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Chalex Week 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Robby Corman  Notices Things</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This combines the first 2 prompts of Chalex Week 2020, Sport and outside perspective. Partially because the idea was too good to pass up. But also because I have ulnar tunnel and tendonitis and my hands hurt.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>No one ever thought much about Robby. He was never a particularly good player and was only on the baseball team because his dad made him, said it would make him a man. His dad wasn’t interested in the truth, not really. He was only ever interested in getting his son back, the one that existed before it happened. He wasn't a bad person per se, but he just didn't understand. </p><p>The Robby that existed before was gone, and he was never coming back, his dad just refused to accept it. He kept trying to push Robby to try out for football. It wasn’t enough for the man that Robby already played baseball in the spring. He needed to play football, cause that was a better sport somehow. Robby didn’t get it. He wasn’t interested, at least, not until he met Charlie St. George, Luke, and Diego.</p><p>It began that night at the apology assembly when Tyler, that kid from the yearbook, stood up as a survivor, and suddenly, for the first time, Robby didn’t feel so alone anymore. It was only after the rally that Charlie asked if he could hug him. Robby nodded and accepted the small gesture.</p><p>Charlie and Robby were in the same graduating class and shared a lot of classes. They both hated Charles Dickens and thought that although Mark Twain’s ideas and writing in terms of plot and ethics were fascinating, his writing style was deplorable. Robby liked to read. He read pretty much everything and anything, except horror. Life was enough of horror and Charlie was a pretty great friend to have around. He didn’t have many of those.</p><p>“Hey Robby,” called Charlie seeing him in the cafeteria the first day back after Thanksgiving, with life finally returning to some semblance of normal.</p><p>“Come sit with us!” It was Charlie, sitting with Tyler, and Justin, Zach, and Alex.</p><p>It was the end of the semester, Monty had just been arrested, and everything seemed up in the air.</p><p>“How are you doing?” asked Justin. “If anybody’s being a dick to you, you tell us and we’ll take care of them.”</p><p>Robby shook his head. “That’s ok. I’m fine,” he replied meekly. “I think everyone’s pretty much forgotten what happened at the assembly, but people still stare sometimes.”</p><p>“We’ll help you blend in anytime if that’s what you need,” added Zach.</p><p>“Oh, dude, before I forget,” Justin grabbed a pen and pulled out a notebook. “I’m the captain of the baseball team this spring, and I wanted to ask you what position you wanted to play this year, we could use a new pitcher.”</p><p>“I…I’m not a good pitcher,” replied Robby, picking at his lunch tray.</p><p>“Wait, I got it,” Zach said proudly, “You should take over catcher from me.”</p><p>“What?” asked Robby, “But…but I... I don’t…you…”</p><p>“My sports career has reached an end,” Zach said bitterly, “But you’re great, and with Justie as Captain you’ll be great. We’ll get Diego to help you learn all the hand signals, and Luke can help you work on your knees, you’d be great for it.”</p><p>Roddy looked at them and nodded vaguely. “Um…thanks guys, that’s really nice of you…um…sure. That sounds…um…good.”</p><p>“Great, I’ll let coach know. What about you, Charlie? You gonna play baseball with us in the spring?”</p><p>“That’s going to be a no for me. Football this year took a lot out of me, so I think I’m going to take some time to myself. Besides, I never really liked baseball. Dad thinks I should try out for hockey.”</p><p>“No way,” chimed in Alex, “You’d never have teeth and no girl will ever date you.”</p><p>Charlie shrugged, but his eyes remained just a smidge longer on Alex who jumped into a conversation with Tyler about their exams.  Robby thought it was kind of odd, but buried his face, as he often did, inside a book.</p><p>“Robby, how are you doing? Are you ok?” asked Charlie.</p><p>“Oh um…yeah, I’m ok, everyone’s been really nice,” Robby explained. “Do you think that means the school is changing?”</p><p>“We can only hope,” replied Charlie.</p><p> </p><p>Robby doesn’t get to join their little group and if he’s being honest, he’s more than ok with that. He gets to enjoy time with them separately. Alex and Robby bond over comic books, Charlie shows him his movie collection and shows him how to bake cookies, and he spends a lot of time with Zach, practicing over winter break in anticipation of the season. But as the season grew closer, the practices with Zach got more and more sporadic, but Justin stepped in after.</p><p>Tyler showed him how to use a pretty cool camera.  spends the time between Christmas and going back to school practicing with the one his parents gave him as a gift. Tyler’s tutoring has really helped to improve it.</p><p>He doesn’t often bring it to school. But occasionally, if the weather is good, he’ll go out and capture something. And for months that’s what he’s having issues with. It starts with flowers, then with arranging random objects in the hope of capturing some kind of depth.</p><p>But it is in the library, after a shooting drill that Robby finds himself accidentally taking a photo of something he really shouldn’t have. And it’s nothing bad, specifically, really. He swears it. He was in the library, trying to finish his physics worksheet and boy, did he, hate physics.</p><p>He looks up from the textbook in time to see Charlie enter the library and…well, that interaction was new. Robby will admit that he was far more observant than people gave him credit for. He had to be now. Observe everything, observe everyone, identity anyone who could cause you harm, and try to avoid them at every turn.</p><p> Charlie had tried to kiss Alex and seemingly Alex freaked. He wasn’t quite close enough to overhear what was happening, but he was close enough to read Charlie’s face, as Luke and Mercer, and Sean called him over. Robby watched as he looked at Alex, as he left the room.</p><p>His eyes glanced briefly at Alex who looked like he was about to throw up as if some cosmic force had interfered.</p><p>Of course, Robby was not about to get involved. He looked briefly at the photo his camera had taken before pressing the delete button and wooshing it away forever.</p><p> </p><p>The next day in English, Charlie and Robby were supposed to be working on a group project on the great American novel. They had chosen the Great Gatsby, which is a tragic book by the end of it. They were currently analyzing the characters to try to figure out how they would translate to modern audiences. The assignment had been fun, but now, Robby was having trouble getting Charlie’s attention.</p><p>“Charlie!” called Robby for the umpteenth time, grabbing him by the arm. “Breaker, breaker, Houston are you in there?” Charlie finally seemed to snap out of it. “Dude, what is going on with you? I’ve been trying to get you to listen to me for the last ten minutes? And Luke told me at practice yesterday that you’ve been a complete space cadet.”</p><p>“Um…sorry Robby, but uh…I’ve kind of have something on my mind.”</p><p>“Is it about Alex?”</p><p>“That obvious?” Robby nodded. Charlie’s eyed darkened for a sec and he pressed his lips together.</p><p>“You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”</p><p>“I appreciate that,” Charlie says with a smile, “He…we had this moment after the riot and I thought he liked me because I really like him and we kissed…and he kissed me back, I swear.”</p><p>Robby nodded. “Luke said he was super happy for you, for finally being honest with your feelings for him.”</p><p>Charlie chewed his lip, “Yeah…but now…it seems like he hates me.”</p><p>“That can’t be true,” Robby said firmly, “It is literally impossible for anyone to hate you.”</p><p>“He…we were in the library and maybe I shouldn’t have assumed that kissing after an emotional event like that equaled being together…maybe I misunderstood.”</p><p>“You didn’t!” Robby saw the teacher and quickly pointed to something in their book. She nodded and continued. “I saw you guys in the library, B…. but I swear I wasn’t spying.”</p><p>“Don’t worry about it,” replied Charlie with a shrug.</p><p>“The…the point I’m trying to make is it looked like he was hurting pretty badly after you left, so…um…maybe there’s something else going on. I mean you know him better than I do, but as he went through a lot, right?” Charlied nodded. “And you guys spend a lot of time together, right?” Charlie nodded again. “So maybe you don’t know the full story, or maybe he’s not comfortable being out. That could be it too, right?”</p><p>“That’s….” begins Charlie. “Thank you, that helps a lot. I think I know what it is now. What about you? How are you doing?”</p><p>“Ask me later, Mrs. Parker is glaring at us, so let’s finish this and then we can talk.”</p><p> </p><p>Robby is happy when he sees Charlie and Alex arriving at school together once it re-opens after the riot. They seem to be on decent footing. They didn’t hold hands in the hallways or anything, but Robby could see the way their demeanor changed. The way Charlie and Alex had matching, goofy smiles during lunch, and the way their shoulders would bump in the hallways. He could tell, there was something instinctively special there.</p><p>“Hey, Robby!” called Alex, inviting him to sit next to him on the quad. “Did you hear, Marvel’s making a new Fantastic Four comic!”</p><p>“Long overdue,” replied Robby sitting down beside him and Charlie. “You two seem to be doing well…”</p><p>“We’re dating!” Charlie said, grin the size of Texas on his face. Alex rolled his eyes, but there's a smirk there too. “Oh and thanks for your advice, it helped.”</p><p>“Really?” asked Robby with a squeak, “I…I’m glad to hear it. Um…I meant to ask… w…will you help me train this summer so I can…um…maybe see if I want to try out for the football team? I’m probably not any good, but the way you and Luke and Justin made it sound…it could be good for me, especially if you’re the captain.”</p><p>“Of course,” Charlie replied instantly. “We can get Alex to be our water boy.”</p><p>“Excuse me?” asked Alex and they all laughed. “You’re going to have to owe me big time for something like that.”</p><p>Charlie thought about it for a second. “Anything you want.” He turned back to Robby. “Are you going to spring formal?”</p><p>“I’m…m…not so good with crowds…or, or dances really.”</p><p>“Me neither,” Alex replied. “Dances are way overrated and something happens at like every one of them.”</p><p>“But you’re still going to go to prom, right?” asked Charlie.</p><p>“Maybe. Either way, Robby, a bunch of us are getting together at Clay and Justin’s for a movie night, if you want? They have a big couch.”</p><p>“You guys are friends with Clay?” Asked Robby.</p><p>Alex went to shake his head but ended up nodding. “Yeah.”</p><p>“Cool…um…I’ll ask my dad, thanks, guys. That’s...really nice of you.”</p><p>Robby Corman wasn’t quite ok yet, there were still things about him that he needed to accept, trauma to discuss.</p><p>“Hey…do you guys um…think the counselor would be a good person to talk to about um….” The reason went unsaid.</p><p>“Dr. Singh?” asked Alex. Robby nodded. “Yeah, I heard she’s nice.”</p><p>“I think…maybe I should talk to someone.”</p><p>“Have you…talked about it?”</p><p>“I told my dad…so he knows. But he thinks because…the…person that did it is gone from my life now that it makes everything ok…”</p><p>“I think Dr. Singh is a good place to start,” replied Charlie. “Tyler told me she helped him.”</p><p>That seemed to perk Robby up a little. “Ok. I’ll make an appointment then, thanks, guys. So, what kind of movies are we going to watch?”</p><p>Robby Corman isn't quite ready to tell these new friends of his about what happened to him, but at the very least he'll come out to them before the end of the year. Then maybe one day next year, right before football tryouts he finally gets the courage to talk about what happened to him. </p><p> </p>
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